Specifications is the
only area that must be completed to enable program generation.

It is divided in:

New
Transaction or BAPI button and Drag & Drop items (1)

The 'New Transaction or
BAPI' button can be used to start a BAPI-based program or a manual Batch Input
program (if you record the transaction using SHDB you don't need to click this
button). If you have started a Batch Input program (without SHDB) you can drag
& drop the cyan fields on the yellow column. As a general rule, every cyan
field can be dragged and dropped on the yellow fields.

Undo
last operation Button (2)

It allows to undo up to
a thousand operations performed over FILE SPECIFICATION or PROGRAM SPECIFICATION.

Generate
Program (3)

Generates the program when all the
necessary fields are completed and after selecting an execution method.

Standard
button Bar (4)

It allows to create a new program,
to open an existing one, to save the current program, to print the program documentation
or to open the Status Collector.

Move
file row up/down (5)

Place the cursor on the
row that you want to move and click on the up-arrow/down-arrow.

Declare
new variables Button/Preview of structures Button
(6)

Use Declare new variables
to define variables and/or parameters (see Parameter
definition) that are going to be used in you own ABAP/4
code or to fill PROGRAM SPECIFICATION. Parameters must be no longer than 8 characters
width. Here you can also insert BAPI models to use on PROGRAM SPECIFICATION.
However, this is only necessary if you want to manually enter all the BAPI parameters.
If you click 'New
Transaction or BAPI' and then you click on 'BAPI Locator',
then all the data and parameters will be automatically added to PROGRAM SPECIFICATION
and the necessary declarations and BAPI model definition will be added as well.

Preview of structures is
used to see necessary internal tables for processing. However it is only relevant
if you want to use Other Data Source or to confirm step-loops or BAPI-table
structures.

Other
Data Source Button (7)

Optional. If the standard
that BIG provides for taking data does not satisfy your needs, you can provide
your own ABAP/4 code and/or use a model provided by BIG and alter the code to
fulfill your requirements. The only condition that must be accomplished is to
fill the necessary structures (see Preview of structures button).

The screen of Other Data
Source allows the user to define variables, to include their own forms and provides
a user form where the execution starts.

FILE
SPECIFICATION (8)

Defines the file/table format from
which data will be taken for Batch Input. For the case of transactions using
step-loops or BAPIs containing tables, this file splits in more than one file
(click File/Print to print all the defined files).

FILE SPECIFICATION may be explicitly
completed (for the case there is a predetermined file/table format), or otherwise
if "Auto-fill" is enabled the fields are automatically filled in FILE SPECIFICATION
each time a new field is used in PROGRAM SPECIFICATION.

If you have established a connection
to an SAP system, do NOT manually enter field width (unless predetermined file
format exists). Just click 'Generate Program' and you will be prompted to confirm
the automatic retrieval of field widths.

You can add notes for a determined
field by double-clicking on the 'Width' column. If you wish to add ABAP/4 code,
an Auto-Formula, or a conversion table for a field, you can do it by double-clicking
on the column "ABAP/CODE/HERE".

PROGRAM
SPECIFICATION (9)

Defines the transaction data a Batch
Input will fill, or the mapping between the source file/s and the BAPI function.

When buiding a batch input program:
If you have the SAP transaction recorder (SHDB) available from 4.0 version (or
from 3.0A by applying a note), it is not necessary to manually complete PROGRAM
SPECIFICATION; but you should drag the input file/table fields over the yellow
column corresponding to SAP field; otherwise if you start filling PROGRAM SPECIFICATION
and Auto-Fill is enabled, FILE SPECIFICATION will be automatically filled each
time a new field is typed.

When buiding a BAPI-based
input program: Click 'New Transaction or BAPI', then click on 'BAPI Locator'.
A new window will appear asking you to select a BAPI. You can search for a specific
BAPI by using the Find First/Next button, you can also search for substrings
on help files (separated by spaces). After importing the fields of the BAPI
that you selected, use F6 to delete all the data that you don't need to fill.
If Auto-fill is enabled go down through PROGRAM SPECIFICATION on the yellow
column to automatically add non-existent fields to FILE SPECIFICATION.

It is possible to take a value from
a parameter instead of taking it from a file. To do this in the yellow column
type @NAME, where NAME will be the name of a parameter that BIG will auto-declare.
You can make those auto-declared fields not to be parameters and to be values
that some ABAP/4 code will fill. Use the Button Declare new variables to change
those auto-declarations. You can insert the ABAP/4 code that uses these variable
by double-clicking on the column "ABAP/CODE/HERE".

As a general rule, you can drag and
drop from cyan to yellow. This means that besides dragging the input file/table
fields, you can also drag an OKCODE (to perform an action on the screen) over
the yellow PROGRAM SPECIFICATION column. The OKCODEs already provided are: the
code for saving, the code for the ENTER key, the code for the F5-key and the
create code; these are the most usual ones, but they can differ from the expected
action or otherwise they may perform no action at all. You may also manually
enter the OKCODEs that you need.

You can double-click on "Field" to
add a note for a field or to enable a step-loop or BAPI table. Enabling Step-Loops
or BAPI-tables will be thoroughly explain further.

From the menu open the demonstration
files to better understand how to fill these fields.

Auto-fill
(10)

If this option is selected, each
time the user types a 'Value' field in
PROGRAM SPECIFICATION, the same field name will be automatically added to FILE
SPECIFICATION.

Counters
(11)

Click on counters to reach
the top of FILE SPECIFICATION or PROGRAM SPECIFICATION.

Source
file (12)

Source file: defines whether data
comes from the server or the workstation.

Fixed width / tab delimited: defines
whether data comes in fixed width format or in tab delimited format (supported
by major spreadsheet applications). In the case of files that come from the
server, the format must always be of fixed width.

Database table: enabled only if the
source comes from the server. It is intended to get data from an external table
by using native SQL. For that purpose you should create a link from the SAP
database to the external database.

File as parameter: enabled when the
source is not a database table. If this option is selected the generated program
will ask you the name of the source file (or names in case step-loops or BAPI-tables
exist).

Source file/table: Path to the main
source file/source table, if you choose the file to be a parameter, this will
be the default value.

File
find Button/Transaction find Button (13)

Type a search string on the text
box and use these buttons to look up the string in FILE SPECIFICATION and PROGRAM
SPECIFICATION respectively.

Call transaction on batch
input: If it is not selected, the generated program will generate sessions;
otherwise it will perform direct-input (visible, not visible and visualizing
errors can be selected). Setting up "Mode as parameter" will let the
users to select the mode type at runtime.

Program
to generate (16)

Path to the program that BIG will
generate (this field is not visible if you are connected to an SAP system).

Once all the data is completed, you
can generate the program by clicking the button "Generate Program".